I’m wondering (so many years down the road, the kids are in their 20s and well on their way!) but how to guide children to follow their interests? I put what I thought was a lot of energy into ‘enriching’ and ‘broadening’ and ‘developing’ my children’s experience (according to my very own extremely limited definitions of what enriching, broadening and developing meant). Clearly I wasn’t all-encompassing, because I had my own ideas about what were worthwhile activities, but I’m not going to spend too much time beating myself up about that, That said, I’m beginning to think that maybe the reasonable approach is to kind of leave them be until around 9-10, expose them to stuff in a low-key way, but above all keep a regular routine. Afterwards - still keeping the safe routine - be prepared and open-minded in whatever you help them encounter (for example, you might think X kind of music is crap, but let them listen to it if they want to, and even guide them to it!).
I guess I’m coming at this from at least two experiences outside my own with my children: one, listening to a mother of a three-year-old BEG an architect to divulge all the experiences/lessons/toys/etc that her child should have (be subjected to) in order to become an architect. Two, having been exposed myself to music from a relative that really shaped me, that he himself didn’t even rate - just a passing interest - but turned out to be quite important to me. All that to say, I think our kids are what they are - their interests will be what they will be - our only responsibility is giving them a safe framework and showing them what’s out there. Am I being unreasonable?
I ask this knowing full well that I’m not unreasonable, not really, but interested to know how others feel about this. What’s the line between ‘broadening horizons’, ‘teaching helpful discipline in an area that may or may not interest the DC, doesn’t matter’ and ‘let them find their own path, with or without you.’?